Weekly food waste collections

Background

During 2026, all households across South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge will receive a new weekly food waste collection service.

This additional service is part of new national legislation requiring councils to collect food waste separately. It will help boost recycling rates and reduce the amount of food sent to landfill.

Food in landfill produces methane, a greenhouse gas, so using this new service is an important step we can all take to limit climate change.

The majority (73%) of food waste comes from households (the rest coming from retail, hospitality and manufacturing). Having a weekly collection service in a separate bin has been proven to increase the amount of food waste collected for recycling.

When collections will start

We will be introducing the service in phases throughout 2026. We will write to residents in advance with specific information, including the start date. The collection dates will also show on your bin collection calendar.

You can also find out when the service will start in your area by typing your postcode into the In My Area section at the top right-hand corner of this page.

Requesting a replacement outdoor caddy

If your food waste collections have already started and you need to request a replacement outdoor caddy (lost or damaged), please use our request a bin form and we'll arrange for delivery within 10 days.

How the service will work

All residents will receive a small indoor kitchen caddy to collect food waste in. If you have your own blue, black and green bins, you’ll receive a larger outdoor caddy for collection which should be placed next to your other bins on collection day. The outdoor caddies are animal-proof with lockable handles. Keep lids closed and avoid overfilling to reduce the chance of it tipping over.

If you live in flat, you will have a shared bin to empty your food waste into which will be stored with your other shared bins. In some cases where flats have insufficient space in the bin store, a separate bin housing will be installed in a communal location.

Assisted collection customers will automatically receive assisted food waste collections.

You’ll receive a starter roll of caddy liners. These are plastic but do not affect the processing of the food waste as they are removed in the first stage of treatment. While reducing plastic is important, collecting food waste matters most. Plastic liners help prevent mess and smells and they are also a cost-effective option. When you have finished the roll of liners provided, we will not provide more. You can use any liner in your caddy (including 'compostable plastic' ones available in shops), or none - if you're using plastic ones, you must be able to see the food waste through the liner so our crew can be reassured that no other waste is inside.

Home composting is still encouraged, but using the food waste caddy lets you recycle items like meat, fish, bones, cooked food, and dairy, which shouldn’t be composted at home as they attract vermin. No amount is too small. Collect tea bags, bones, eggshells, onion skins, and fruit peels; you might be surprised how much you throw away.

What you can put in your food waste caddy

You can recycle the following with the new food waste collection service:
•    all uneaten food and plate scrapings
•    raw and cooked food (including mouldy food)
•    fruit and vegetables (including peelings)
•    meat and fish (including bones)
•    dairy (cheese, eggs, eggshells, yoghurt)
•    bread, cakes, pastries, rice, pasta
•    tea bags and coffee grounds
•    tissues / kitchen roll

Please do not put the following in your caddy:
•    packaging of any kind (including ‘compostable plastic’ plates, cups etc.)
•    liquids such as milk
•    oil or liquid fat
•    anything else that is not food waste

Once your weekly food waste service starts, you should stop putting food waste in the green bin as we want as much food waste as possible collected by the new service. You can use your green bin if you have a missed collection and do not have capacity in your outdoor caddy until the next collection (see below). Windfall fruit counts as garden waste and can stay in the green bin, but be aware that heavy bins can trigger the lorry’s weight sensor and prevent them being emptied.

Where your food waste will go

Food waste will be taken to an Anaerobic Digestion (AD) Plant. This is a separate facility from where your garden waste will be composted.
At the AD plant, caddy liners are mechanically removed and used as a fuel to generate energy, and the food is broken down in the treatment process without oxygen present. This creates biogas which is captured to generate electricity. Fertiliser is also produced, which is used in farming.

Missed collections

While we will not return to empty missed outdoor caddies, please report it using the missed bin form. Notifying us helps improve our service and minimise future misses. If you run out of space in your caddy before the next collection, please do one of the following:

1. Place the food waste into your black bin
2. Remove the food waste from the liners and place it in your green bin either loose, or in paper liners.

Plastic or bio-bags must not be put into the green bin as this will result in it being contaminated and not emptied.

If you live in a flat and your shared food waste bin has been missed, please fill in the missed bin at flats form and we will return to empty these.

Information leaflets

Download a copy of your food waste collection leaflet:

• Houses leaflet [PDF, 4MB] (if you have your own outdoor caddy for collection)
• Flats leaflet [PDF, 4MB] (if you share bins with others)
• Flats bin store poster [PDF, 2MB]

Reducing food waste

Once you begin using your new weekly food waste collection service, you will probably notice how much food you are throwing away each week. Eight out of ten people think that they waste less food than average, but in fact most people throw away quite a lot of food which could have been eaten, if it was used up in time. Find out more about reducing food waste

Caddy drop off locations

After the distribution, we will not collect unwanted caddies from your property. If you already have a caddy or received one during the trial in 2020, you may keep the new ones as spares or repurpose them. Alternatively, you can drop off new, unused caddies (not old ones) at any of the locations listed below. Specific locations are using What 3 Words

You can contact us if you have any queries about your weekly food waste collection service.